Here's not our president he's our equivalent of a Prime Minister. We do have a president but he's more of a symbolic head of state type figure.

Varadkar is interesting, he's a gay son of an Indian immigrant yet is pretty much a bog standard Thatcherite neoliberal. Socially liberal (except for abortion whoops) but very much a centre right elitist in many other ways. The best person to compare him to is Marco Rubio. I don't imagine much will change under his leadership apart from the optical facelift which will come with the change of personality. He's a catchy PR story but not much beyond that, there's an underhanded side to him which has not been reflected in the stories written on him in the international press.

Sorry about that, I thought I had it right with the President title. I should have taken a few seconds to look up that he's to become the Taoiseach. The countries who have both President and PM positions can get a bit confusing.

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Dammit, I had a whole thing typed out about the Bill Maher thing but it got gobbled up by the internet trolls.

Short version: Don't care that he called himself a house nigger, it was a tasteless joke but reasonable considering the setup the congressman gave him and he didn't call someone else it or do it to actively offend. Just scandalize. People have to stop giving these attention seeking stunts (like this or Kathy Griffin) weight and gravitas. Because doing this kind of stuff is ridiculous and shouldn't be rewarded with our time and energy

Brandon Morrison - Chief of Staff and Forum Attaché to the Grand Chancellor

It seemed the same few voices always out to get Maher were at it again, I watch his show most weeks, mostly for the discussion. His jokes don't always land, he says stupid shit, we all do. It wasn't good but it was only one bad joke. I see right wingers do blackface all the time which to my mind is worse and don't get a single ounce of trouble. We make mistakes to learn from them and move on.

Scott Pruitt must have no friends in Washington if Morning Joe are willing to be this hard on him. He deserves it, fuck him. He's not a commentator, he doesn't have an opinion, he's an inhumane lobbyist scumbag out to harm whatever and whoever he wants to make a quick buck for who he represents. A despicable craven individual.

In Ireland unless you live in Dublin or something working full time isn't about whether you can afford to live but what kind of lifestyle you can afford. Having a U.S. politician say this in 2017 is madness.